As the economic climate worldwide has shown uncharacteristic elements of strife and turmoil, I've been getting more and more questions asked about finding and keeping a job in the Internet marketing space. As a CEO, and someone who employs quite a few folks, I think I can give some fairly detailed, albeit personal, advice on this topic.
So - if you want to keep the job you've got, or earn your next one, let me recommend these strategies:
- Be Metrics Driven
If you can show a company that's thinking of hiring you that you know how to track metrics around search - whether it's rankings, competitive intelligence, PPC performance, etc. - and you have the pretty charts and graphs to show them from your last (or existing) gig, you're well on your way. Management at companies large and small love data, love charts and love "chrome" - seriously. The better and more robust your charts and datasets, the better off you'll be. Make Excel your friend and learn to love pivot tables (or just get really good at splicing Omniture/Google Analytics in smart ways).
_ - Show Initiative
You don't have to implement a new project under the table or in your spare time and then try to convince everyone it's great. In fact, management can often get frustrated by employees who use "spare" time on their own projects without running it past someone first. However, just an email every few weeks with a project idea, a way to speed up production, a test implementation of new technology, features or report layouts goes a long way. Your superiors will feel like you aren't just in this for the 9-5, but that you're actively trying to make a difference.
Case in point - today I got emails from three different people at SEOmoz pitching some new ideas for improving YOUmoz, building a new tool for Labs and re-organizing content in the PRO library. Not all of them can be pursued right away, and a few take dev time and resources, but they show dedication and interest - which is far more critical to the growth and success of a company in an emerging field like search.
_ - Pro-Actively Improve Your Knowledge
I absolutely love it when I find a skill in an employee that I myself haven't cultivated. It adds so much extra value to the organization, in everything we do (Q+A, tool development, guides, consulting, etc). Go out and find a niche you're passionate about, dive in, and report back with your findings. A quick email to your SEO or marketing team commenting on trends in acquisition of affiliates, building reputation management accounts, learning the Google image search algo more thoroughly, etc. is a fantastically positive indicator.
_ - Support Your Co-Workers
Trust me when I say that one of the biggest positives is when someone in the organization is overwhelmed and another team member can pitch in to tow the line. The teamwork that builds and the emotional positivity that flows from those events is irresistible. It's the type of action that can make you a company favorite for months or years to come. So, if you see a co-worker drowning under the load, offer to help, dive in and kick ass. That's the kind of person every manager wants on their team.
_ - Don't Play Politics
Likewise, when rough issues arise, or feelings run hot, don't panic, don't over-react and do what's best for the company. It's easy to be selfish when you're feeling overlooked, under-appreciated or bad-mouthed, but standing strong and never swaying from a position of objectivity carries considerable weight. Let your potential new employer know that this is the kind of person you are and you'll remove a huge element of risk that every manager worries about.
_ - Don't Be Thrown Off By Logistics
The dev team doesn't have time to implement your idea. Management is too busy to approve a formal budget. Your co-workers' time is caught up with other projects. Don't worry. Take your idea and find ways to scale it down or re-think so that you can design/implement on your own. I know how hard the barriers can be to taking initiative in companies where times are tough and focus is tight, but if you can do it independently, you'll earn the respect and admiration of your execs. It's incredibly hard to let someone go once you know they can build value all by themselves, even if/when the rest of the team is swamped.
_ - Create Accurate Expectations
I haven't ordered these by importance, but if I did, this might be #1. In business, as in usability (and life), creating expectations and delivering on them is the most critical aspect to success and happiness. If you tell your boss you can have something done by a certain date, have it done on that date. If you deliver reports, analyses, written documents, blog posts, etc. at a certain quality level, don't suddenly produce something of lower value. Likewise, if you've just joined a new position and want to impress everyone (or are worried about your job and are attempting to compensate), don't create expectations in others you can't regularly fulfill. It's excellent to demand more of yourself and improve with time, but I believe false expectations are one of the biggest causes for dissatisfaction on both sides of the employment aisle.
_ - Maintain a Positive Profile in the Industry
There's no doubt about it - search is a strange industry. We've got cults of personality, popularity battles, people willing to go to extremes to get noticed and a lot of personal branding (much of it professional & positive and some the reverse). To prosper at a job in the search space and to help keep your chances for the next gig as robust as possible, keep your personal brand positive 100% of the time. Thinking about leaving a nasty comment because you felt slighted? Skip it. Want to post something harshly controversial on your Twitter account? Better think twice. At a bar with comrades who are speaking negatively about another individual - feel free to provide an opinion, but refrain from personal attacks and unprofessional comments. This industry is still tiny, and I can tell you that every day, comments come back to me about what person X said about person Y (especially if it was said "in confidence"). Keep your nose clean, and you've got a far better chance that others will do the same when it comes to your references and reputation.
_ - Provide Productivity Statistics
A few of the folks at SEOmoz have started a weekly email series describing their tasks, projects and accomplishments for the week. I absolutely love it. It's an easy way to get caught up on what's going on in their professional lives and in the operations of the business without feeling nosy or interrupting. It's also a fantastic tool for employees who are worried their efforts might be overlooked or under-appreciated. If I've got an email in my box telling me what you've been working on, I'm much more likely to give praise and direction than if those tasks (even the critical ones) fly under my radar.
_ - Bring Business to Your Organization
If you participate in the social web, attend events, have contacts in the field of business or even just go to a local meetup every few weeks/months and create a positive impression for your company, you're doing very smart things for your career. In a downturn, organizations seek to cut the excess; they don't want to potentially dismiss a direct source of revenue (even if it's just possible revenue). And for managers who aren't always great at accepting internal reviews or trusting their own judgment, external validation from a customer or partner goes a long way.
I hope these have proven valuable, and I'd certainly love to hear others from hiring managers, directors and CEOs of other firms in the space. I also now owe some quid pro quo and a blog post on how employers should treat their people in order to find and retain the best quality staff. After all, employment is a two-way street, and both parties need to be able to both give and receive in equal proportion.
Oh, and if you're interested in a job, SEOmoz is hiring for an intermediate/mid level SEO right now!
p.s. The SMX Munich conference has been terrific. More to come on that subject soon.
p.p.s. A quick #11 - to apply each of these 10 tips to job seeking, start utilizing them as talking points in your interviews. When the interviewer asks "your best traits" or "what makes you qualified," use these (as appropriate) to sell yourself. Just make sure you follow through :-)
Great list. I definitely like that "be metrics driven" is number 1. I'd add:
Have a plan
Be able to clearly describe the steps you'll be going through as part of your SEO methodology. Managers like to understand the plan, and being able to explain the plan and why some actions happen before others shows you understand the big picture of SEO.
Develop (and train) others
Showing you can develop people, whether they are direct reports or work in neighboring departments, is valuable. Consider sharing one or two appropriate articles a month in order to expose your colleagues to relevant SEO information. (Looks like grasshopper beat me to this one.)
On Maintaining a positive profile in the industry
Personally, I'm sometimes wary of folks that maintain a high (yes, different than positive) profile in the industry and/or run their own blogs. I wonder if they're more interested in promoting their personal brand than on achieving the company's goals. All else being equal, I'll take low profile over high profile.
Very good list here. I've run into some people who do not follow any of these and they quickly become unemployed.
In my days when I ran a small team, the people who stood out were the ones who had a 'can do' attitute.
There's nothing I hate more than someone seeing a clear way to improve something, or noticing a blockage, but doing nothing about it because 'it's not my job'.
Grrrrrrr.........
It's not often that your boss straight up tells you what you need to do in order to keep (or get) your job. Thanks Rand :)
#7 is the big one for me. It goes hand-in-glove with the old "underpromise and over-deliver" mindset.
I would also say that you shouldn't be afraid to take a contrarian viewpoint if you feel a strategy is a poor use of resources. Devote all your efforts to make sure it succeeds, and if it does, then admit you were wrong.
If it does not succeed, an "I told you so." will not be necessary. Either way, people will learn to respect you, and you will be considered a valued member of the team.
Spot on Rand! My top three choices to see in an employee would be #2, #7 and #4, in that order.
great list, rand. i would also add:
#11 Be a Good Educator - everyone who reads this blog takes for granted an amount of *extremely specialized* knowledge that very few people in the business world at large have been exposed to.
be able to boil complex concepts down into accessible pieces of information that communicate to your audience in terms that are meaningful to them - e.g.
- for executives: "this is how SEM impacts our site, which impacts the following metrics, which impacts financials, which impacts our company's valuation, which impacts investors....", etc.
- for product managers: "here's how you do competitive analysis when you're about to build a new product. choosing to build the application in AJAX will have the following impacts on your product's overall profit and loss", etc.
this is educating in the truest sense, but it also has the benefit of being a hell of a sales pitch - whether your going for a promotion, or just to get to the second round of interviews
I think other major thing is to make people view your role as a revenue generating center than cost center.
More then often, marketing budgets are viewed as cost center vs revenue generating channels (which you can do by measuring and analyzing growth in traffic and the revenue)
I bet all the SEOmoz employees are pinning this list up in their cubicles!
But seriously, this list is good. I also look for a positive, can-do-anything attitude. Those people are always seem to make the best employees.
Not just a list of tips for Search Marketing but I believe the majority of these things can be applied to ANY job in business for the most part (Not to mention there are some common life lessons listed) Like numbers 4"Support Your Co-Workers" 5 "Don't Play Office Politics"
Goes back to the old Golden Rule "Treat everyone the way you want to be treated"...
I've been trying to jump into a position in this industry for quite sometime now. Maybe its a confidence thing but when I compare my credentials to what companies look for I always get discouraged. It's good to see what a leader in the industry finds important. Great starting point.
Don't get discouraged or compare yourself to others. I think part of what Rand is saying is that it isn't ALL about credentials. If you can show that you possess some (if not all) of these qualities, then you may have an in. You don't need to be an SEO superstar to get hired at SEOmoz... believe me! :)
Let's not forget that attaining customer or peer reference letters and distributing those to your supervisor also helps prove your effort and attention to business (as detailed from others).
I would have to add that publishing worthy articles / blog posts (especially on a prominent site that isn't your own) brings tremendous credibility to your status as a present or future employee / contractor.
I think this is pretty obvious - but also don't spend all day - or your entire marketing focus on Twitter.
I'm really into #9. Great idea (the rest are good too).
Hey Rand. Just wanted to let you know that I followed this advice and got myself a new job working as a blogger & social media strategist. Thanks & you rock!
Thanks rand, so #8 this seems to be more of an issue around internal seo vs seo consultants. I agree that sometimes we dont always say good things about how other seo companies/agencies have done on a project.
I agree that personal attacks dont get anyone on your side, but if your competition has used an automated seo tool and managed to mess up the public facing side with random code, it should not be kept quite the client needs to know what has occured.
I agree that metric driven focus is best for the client, if you set your standards above what they expect you will always continue to over deliver and they will love you.
The politics issue can sometimes be hard, when something hasnt been done and you get the blame, sometimes thats just life dealing with clients.
Love these tips. I've recently started a new job myself and i will try and use these tips to help me along.
Thanks!
I love number 9. I think it is a very good idea and very sensible, even in small organizations. Will definately try to implement at my workplace. It also helps to have a daily to do list, if number 9 is to be implemented. I can't remember all the stuff I did this week!
Even in terms of producitivity, seeing what work you have finished in the last week can be helpful and lets you understand and appreciate your capabilities better.
Cheers Rand
Another great post. Some on the list I do without thinking, but a few others are good to kick start me in helping my organization. ie. #9 - Many search jobs are flexible, and you don't need to come into the office every day. This is a great idea to keep managers informed and confident that you are working hard for them.
#10 got me thinking of The Four Hour Work Week, and placing yourself in the center of the revenue stream. Think what you want about author Ferriss, it still makes a lot of sense to be able to contribute to the revenue stream of the company. As stated, it makes any cut that would be aimed at you much more difficult to pull the trigger on.
Absolutely love this post. Great wrap-up of how to succeed and hold your own in this industry. I especially believe # 9 is of great importance.
To elaborate a bit on that subject...the first thing I was ever told when I entered into SEO/Online Marketing is that I have to be able to hold my own and be able to express my work and its importance to the organization. I was told that in any position (especially in this industry) you have to be able to do this because no one else is going to do it for you. When you're able to convey your value, you are doing much more than defending your position/responsibilities. You are showing initiative, passion, willingness, and strength as an individual and an employee.
I know you may not have been conveying this idea entirely with #9, but it reminded me of the importance of expressing your value and communicating yourself and your position.
heres a tip... dont be an idiot! read a book and learn how things work! stop being a twitter zombie and going to webinars learning about idiot proof sofware like stumbleupon and digg, that stuff is self explanatory and you dont need a tutorial to learn it. learn about site architecture and meaningful things, get links like crazy, become multi talented.these tips are all GREAT one of the best posts yet, only i dont play SEO politics cause i actually AM metrics driven and don't need to kiss a**
i have so much love for seomoz! now if there was only a way we could figure out how to get away from useless things like twitter/stumbleupon/facebook and start living life! or at least studying something that will truly benefit mankind. alas, much money and media attention lies in "socializing" online. digital round of beers on me.
All of these are extremely poignant. Definately through my years in the industry The order has been:
Entrepreneurial Mindset (Forward thinking, Innovative, Proactive)
Sharing (providing opinion, facts, concepts)
Teamwork (providing support, allowing people to help you)
Manage Expectations (Client-side and internally)
Endurance & Perseverence
Self-Learning (studying, reading, talking, listening)
Be Solid (find facts and support info to back-up opinions, trends, etc)
Business Acumen (detail oriented, look for business, be helpful to allys)
Be Confident and Strong (stick with your gut, dive deep into what you know to be true or feel needs exploration or solve for a problem)
I am sure there are others but these foster good habits and lead to pretty much all of the desirable traits that come with professional conduct.
For me # 2 is really very imporant .
I beleive that Initiative is often misunderstand.It is not about meeting performance goals; it's about going the extra mile.
Also, it is about identifying a need and championing a solution for the benefit of the company without being asked to do so. There is no magic to initiative, just a sense of responsibility for the company's well-being and a few guiding principles.
Personally, the most important to me #2 Show Initiative.
#1 is very important, but it's easy to adjust the datas to make them looks more shiny... on the other hand, employees with initiative, are a resource you can rely on much more.
Those are people who can really help a company grow, not just people here to collect their monthly cheques, but people who feel part of the company and want to see it succeed.
That's invaluable!
Thanks for this Rand!
Im currently looking for an SEO position within London and these tips have helped to point out some of the most important factors.
Im quite happy im ticking the boxes so thanks for the confidence boost too!!
To go along with the "showing initiative" point, I think it's important to be ambitious and not to settle for second best. Although I think any SEO has that fighting factor deep within anyway.
Thanks Again Rand :)
I agree for all your predictions; only disagree that its a "vision" not
"interpretation" of the future of search.
At Cazoodle, we share the same vision. To enable vertical search in many
domains. Our first product---Cazoodle Apartment Search, is truly first
one-stop rentals search engine. It organically crawls and integrates
apartment listings from thousands of Web sources. Next in pipeline, we are
developing products for online shopping and local events search. Give it a
try: www.cazoodle.com
I love #1...
I have been hearing a lot of ppl get hired by using some of the SEOmoz Pro tools. Running reports, and giving them to potential employers.
Do you have any articles on SEOmoz that illustrates this in what type of graph you may use, and what data is the best to measure?
Edit - Found one
https://www.seomoz.org/blog/whiteboard-friday-how-the-link-graph-works
Too late Robert (re:the name change). You've done such a good job at branding CharlotteSEO that it's all I can think of when I see your posts! ;)
Great advice Rand, this helps me have a clearer and fresher idea of CEO's expectations. I can relate to a couple of this aspects you mentioned. To me being proactive all the time is a great attitude to assume on any job.
To be able to work with the seomoz team would be an honor.
Fantastic ideas regarding search engine marketing.... I appreciate!
https://www.themediaannexes.org
Be metrics driven.
You're absolutely right. Metrics help to show SEO performance to Management and to improve SEO too.
See "search engines visits ratio":
Number of visits coming from the search engines and accessing to the page / number of visits coming from search engines
Compare this ratio for each page of your website and you get on which page you have to work or not.
- Casey Removed Link